Sade's Blog

What to do when you need to make time till your boyfriend’s plane lands? Cooking! So I made pizza dough, a nice tested and retested recipe. It’s very basic, but it turns out great!

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon active dry yeast (or one 5.5 grams package)
• 3 1/2 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1 1/2 cups warm water

Instructions:

1. Pour 1/2 cup warm water in a cup or small bowl. Stir in yeast, and let stand until yeast dissolves and turns creamy, 5 minutes.
2. In a large bowl, combine flour and salt. Make a well, and fill it with yeast mixture, olive oil and a cup of warm water. Stir with a fork, incorporating liquid little by little, until a ball of dough forms. Turn dough onto floured work surface, and knead until smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes. If dough seems dry and hard, add a few drops of water; if wet and sticky, add a little flour.
3. Shape dough into a smooth ball, dust it with flour, place in a large bowl, and cover with plastic wrap. Let rest in a warm, dark place until doubled in bulk, about 90 minutes. Divide into 4 balls before using. Can freeze up to 3 months.

Yield: 4 10-inch pizza crusts

Notes:

• I like this pizza dough best once it’s been frozen and defrozen.
• For freezing, I rather not let the dough rise. Once you’ve finished kneading, divide dough in four, grease each portion with a bit more of olive oil, and wrap in plastic, then freeze.
• For thawing, put the dough at ambient temperature for a while, until you can unwrap it carefully, then place it in a deep dish slightly oiled and cover the dough with the same plastic it was frozen in. Put the dish over a bowl full of very hot water and let rest undisturbed, until dough has risen and at least doubled.
• Roll out the dough on a slightly floured surface, and cook over parafined paper. It’s easier rolling it out directly on the paper, still using flour.

Use your favourite ingredients for making the pizza: tomato sauce, veggies, different cheeses, meats… My favourites include mozzarella, olives, onion and a bit of tuna! Bake at about 180ºC. You can also make calzone: just put the ingredients mixed together on the rolled out dough covered with tomato sauce, fold in half, and close carefully. Brush the surface with some oil, and into the oven! Enjoy!

Sade

So, I knit the hat in about three evenings, as follows: the first evening I knit the seed stitch rim, the second eve, the stockinette part before the decreases, and today, the third evening, I knit all the decreases and finished the hat. And it fits, and the colour is lovely (pictures don’t make justice to it, no matter if I take them with daylight or flash).

It was a fairly quick knit, and very easy. I enjoyed it so much! And now my ears won’t freeze, since it covers them too :-)

The Hat

• Pattern: Kittyville Hat, from SnB Handbook – earflaps and kittyears removed.
• Yarn: Pure New Wool, DK weight. One 50 gr. / 67 m. (approx.) skein in Incan Forest.
• Gauge: 17.5 stitches to 10 cm in stockinette.
• Needles: 4.5 mm double point needles
• Finished Measures: Adult size

Notes: I liked the Kittyville hat a lot, but once I had the hat done, I liked it so much without earflaps or kittyears that I’m going to use it this way. I have three more skeins, so I can make a real Kittyville hat if I want! Also, the pattern asks to use a 40cm. circular needle to start the hat and then switch to double point needles, but making it all on dpn’s works as fine.

For all the readers out there whose emails I didn’t spam with my season’s greetings card:

I just got my package from the Christmas exchange. My gifter is Elara! Thank you very much, Elara, all the things are beautiful. First, a general pic of all the presents, still wrapped:

Then, all the things unwrapped!

You can see a little pouch that came with the candy inside, a pair of socks(!), a pretty pendant or brooch in the shape of a butterfly, soap confetty in a glass packaging, an orange shaped candle, a pink elephant! magnet (I love pink elephants, they remind me of a beer called “Delirium Tremens” *grin*), a freebie to try out the parfum Black U, by Adolpho Dominguez, a shower gel with the fragance of 212 by Carolina Herrera, some vaseline, lilac eye-shadow, a mug with the alphabet scribbled all over it, and the most beautiful hand made scarf! (I think it is the Knitty pattern called Wavy, am I right, Elara? Edit: I am wrong, Elara just told me it’s Lia‘s Rainy Day Scarf *blush* Sorry, Lia!!)

For some detail pics, you can see: the pouch, the butterfly, the pink elephant, the socks and soaps.

It was wonderful opening the package, really! Everything was beautiful :-)

Gracias, Elara! (can’t say it enough!)

Sade

So, I did it in time – damn, I thought I wouldn’t with classes, work, exams, traveling and all that! My package for the exchange has just been sent off to its (lucky?) recipient. I hope it will arrive soon, as it doesn’t really have to make a big trip around the world *hint-hint*. I would have wanted to send it yesterday, but the post office was too full and I had/have a flu that didn’t make it nice to wait more than half an hour. Anyway, I hope «enter nick here» enjoys her pressies a lot.

Edit: Since the package has already reached its new owner, Pat, and until she can post pictures of it, I’ll put one I took before sending it (forgot to add the belgian chocolates when I took the pic…) so you get the idea.

Sade

I am back from Belgium. I spent all last week there, and had lots of fun. For a whole (short) tale on the trip, visit the post I wrote on the blog Jan and I share. For pics, visit our gallery.

Sade

P.S.: No knitting was done during this time, but I managed to get a grasp at ‘tight spinning’ as I’ll call it (spinning yarn between your tight and your palm).

This next week I’ll be out visiting Jan. We’ll do shopping, visit places and friends, have fun, and all that. More upon getting back home (or perhaps I break in and post something here during the week).

Sade.